Tuesday, May 31, 2011

I think Cesc Fabregas’ time at Arsenal is nearing it’s end. He has been a great servant since joining the club at age 16, but it may now be time to collect the fat check from Barcelona, allow Cesc to go where he wants, and use the money to move forward and improve the team as a whole. Sources say that Arsenal are looking for a fee of 35-40 million pounds for the captain, and if Barcelona, or any other club, meet that asking price, does anyone NOT think it would be in our best interest to take that kind of cash?

The importance of Cesc to this team over the past few seasons is undoubted. He has led from the front for the most part, and he has been a loyal servant since he first arrived from Barcelona. His talent is world class, and any team would love to have a player of his quality. My fear is that this current Arsenal team have become too reliant on Cesc, and when he is injured like he was for a good portion of this past year, we seem to lose our way.

Selling Cesc would give us the freedom to change formations into what I think we most suited for, the 4-4-2. That would allow Jack Wilshere/Samir Nasri/Aaron Ramsey to have the creative slot in the center of midfield next to Alex Song. Up front we could have both a target man like Marouane Chamakh or Nicklas Bendtner (if we keep him) next to the brilliance of Robin van Persie. Or we could move Theo up front with RvP and play them in the Bergkamp/Henry roles. The wing positions could be solved with a number or options, including Arshavin (again, if we keep him), Theo, Nasri, or Wilshere, along with potential signings Eden Hazard and Gervinho. I think our players are more suited to a 4-4-2 formation that has been so successful for the club over the years as opposed to the 4-3-3 we have been operating with the past few seasons.

The other benefit of selling Cesc, obviously, would be the large amount of money we would be getting for him. If you need to bring a lot of players in to revamp a lineup, then you are going to need a lot of money to do it. While we’ll get some money for selling Denilson, Bendtner, Almunia, and some others, all of that won’t even add up to the money that we would get for selling Cesc. He wants to go back to Barcelona, and I can’t really blame the guy. If you watched the Champions League Final you know how brilliant a team they are, even if they are a bunch of twats. Let’s take that big money for him and reinvest it into the team instead of keeping a player around who doesn’t want to be here and eventually selling him for a lower price or losing him on a free when his contract eventually runs out.

Cesc has been a good servant to the club, but at some point you need to move forward without certain players. Arsenal sold Vieira, we sold Henry, and we can sell Cesc too. You can’t replace a player of his talent level one for one, but with a squad that needs so many things fixed, I’d prefer 3-4 very good players to one great one. Let’s make the move that will make everyone happy and sell him this summer.

Feel free to agree or disagree with me, and if someone wants to write an article opposing what I just wrote, you have an open invitation to email me your article and I will post it here unedited tomorrow. ArseNole{at}arsenole}dot}com. Cheers and up the Gunners.

how many trophies did we win since we sold vieira and henri?we won't be so lucky to finish 4th next season.would you complsin if arsene pockets the money then replaces him with a couple of nobodies?arsenal struggle to even score a goal when cesc is not playing.

you build your best team around your best player not sell them. have you asked him to extend his contract he said no?its the boards that want a big payday and barca dont wanna pay up coz they dont really need him.spain is his home, whats wrong with cesc going there after retirement?this selling mentality needs to stop. unless you are planning to replace him with someone similiar or better. forget henri and vieira. who did we replace adebanjo and toure with? bendtner and squilllaci huh?

i just read this and seeing as this was written at the end of may, im impressed by how accurately you have predicted the situation that arsenal would be in.i think you have made some very good points, and although i certainly agree with some comments that cesc adds something special to the team, i dont think that keeping a player who is not 100% committed to the cause is good for the club, and who said that £40million cant go towards a player of equal ability? Personally though, i would certainly put that money towards mata, who is a fantastic player, who it seems we could buy for around £25-£30million, and spend the rest on a very good centre back, such as jagielka, cahill or samba. I would also try to sell squillaci, almunia and bendtner for sure, and with some of the money generated from previous sales; toure and adebayor, a combined total of £41 million, on top of clichy for £7 million, i think arsenal could definitely do with a second good centre back, and perhaps a world class striker to partner robin van persie, or to play in his place when he is injured, which as we have found, is quite a common occurence. I would think what arsenal have sometimes really missed is someone exactly like javier hernandez: an excellent finisher with blistering pace, and an extremely clever runner off the ball. I dont think arsenal will need to sign all of these players this summer, but in recent times depth has been a real issue for them, and in my view these would be the kinds of players that would really benefit them and get them back to winning ways again.

I have the privilege of hindsight, 3 years in fact from this article, and the selling of Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona did not do that much damage to Arsenal. Although Cesc has featured somewhat regularly for the Blaugrana, he is now looking to come back to England, perhaps a Chelsea or Man City.

Get your World Cup Battle Pack Cleats, Messi World Cup Cleats and adidas World Cup Cleats at http://soccerstop.com